By Carrie Lee

HONG KONG, Friday July 21,1997 (Reuter) - Hong Kong Friday laid down guidelines empowering police to ban protests and drew criticism from rights groups for freezing labour laws.

The administration granted police wide discretionary powers to ban protests or political groups on "national security" grounds.

It issued guidelines defining national security and allowing the police chief to ban gatherings if they threatened China's security, promote independence for Tibet or Taiwan, or caused public disturbance.

Police can also ask the government's security chief to cancel the registration of a society on grounds of national security.

The guidelines expand on laws enacted by the territory's China-appointed legislature hours after London returned this former British colony of 156 years to Beijing on July 1.

The laws, pushed through by Hong Kong's new leader Tung Chee-hwa at China's behest, imposed curbs on protests and the registration of parties. They included the concept of "national security" which was not defined at the time.

Human rights groups and pro-democracy politicians blasted the Friday move.

"I think it is a blatant contravention of the freedom of speech. I think it makes quite clear that certain things will not be allowed as a cause for support or as content of debate," said Margaret Ng, a lawyer and ex-legislator.

Paul Harris, chairman of Human Rights Monitor, said the rules breached Hong Kong's constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guaranteed people freedom to express their views non-violently.

The development came on the heels of a government move that froze a set of labour rights laws, drawing criticism from international and local labour groups.

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) called the suspension a slap in the face and a breach of China's promises on labour standards.

"This makes a mockery of official assurances given by China to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that basic labour standards, in particular ILO Conventions 87 and 98, would remain valid in Hong Kong after the handover," it said.

The covenants referred to in the ICFTU's statement protect such trade union rights as collective bargaining, which enables unions to negotiate with employers on wages and benefits.

The ICFTU said China's pledge to allow Hong Kong to keep its capitalist system was also in doubt.

China has promised there will be no change to the territory's capitalist system for 50 years after the handover.

The new legislature passed a government bill on Wednesday suspending three labour laws and a human rights provision.

Defending the move, legislature president Rita Fan said the government needed time to study the labour laws, which had been passed in haste before the handover by an elected legislature replaced by the current China-appointed body.

A government spokesman also shot back with a denial that it was breaching international labour covenants, saying: "Our proposal is to suspend, not repeal, the laws until October 31, to enable the administration to assess their full impact."

The ICFTU said trade unions from more than 30 nations had sent protest letters to Tung, who has said he does not want the labour laws on the statute book because they will hurt Hong Kong's competitiveness.